Nigeria, Other African Countries, Prepare for Digital Broadcasting

Forty-seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa have said they would set up the mechanism to deploy digital television, and hope to make the switch by 2015. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) released a statement recently following a meeting it held with the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) in Nairobi. The ITU noted that “The consolidation of national plans to implement the digital switchover in the African region is in conformity with the deadlines of June 2015 (for UHF) and June 2020 (for VHF in 33 countries) set in 2006 by ITU’s Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06), which adopted the GE06 TV Plan. “This move positions Africa to allocate bandwidth freed up by the transition to digital television – or digital dividend – to the mobile service for both the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands – in 2015.” François Rancy, Director of ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau, said, “The objective was to enable African countries to allocate the digital dividend to mobile services in the band 694-862 MHz, as a regionally harmonized implementation of the decisions taken at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2012.” Rancy said, “This objective was reached by re-planning the spectrum requirements of television broadcasting in the 470-694 MHz frequency band.”